If you don't like your child's school's rules, send them to a new school. That's what choice is about

When you go to the supermarket to buy juice, you don’t expect to find one kind of juice only. Not only is there orange, apple, pineapple and grape, there are several different types of each flavour. You might have orange with lots of pulp, or none at all. You might have concentrate or fresh. Yet with schools, we believe that that they should all be the same, and that parents should not have choice over which school would be best for their child. If all schools were the same, choice wouldn’t matter. Choice only matters when different options are offered.

The boy with the Mohican haircut who was sent home from his school - Burlington Danes in west London - has a mother who should be exercising this choice. Instead, she is following in the footsteps of so many people who are more powerful than her by demanding that the school do what she wants. She isn’t looking at Tropicana and choosing between no pulp, and lots of pulp. She is demanding that Tropicana change what they are offering.

The fact that Burlington Danes is an excellent school, has a waiting list of parents who have chosen it for their children, and accept school rules that children should not have out-of-the-ordinary haircuts, is of no interest to this woman. She, apparently, knows better than these parents who, along with the school, should conform to her needs and wants.

This woman clearly doesn’t understand just how important rules are to an inner-city school’s success. She doesn’t know that one of the reasons Burlington Danes has been turned around completely, having been a school in special measures just seven years ago but now an outstanding one, is precisely because of rules such as those about haircuts. Or maybe she does and just doesn’t care. Perhaps it is more important that her child should ‘express himself’ than for order and learning to take place in his classroom. I don’t know what her reasons are, neither do I care. She has every right to exercise her choice. She has every right to remove her son from Burlington Danes and send him to another school which will allow him to be as ‘creative’ as he would like.

Do I care if she buys OJ with pulp or without? No. But I mind when she starts campaigning for Tropicana to stop offering its customers a choice of no pulp, when this is something I like to drink. Where does the arrogance come from?

This woman is not alone in her stance, mind you. I have to say that her approach often comes from very middle-class parents, normally Lefty or hippy types. They don’t see the point in ties or uniform. Who cares what my child’s hair looks like? It has nothing to do with his learning! Fine. I have no problem with people thinking like this: they should be able to have their own choice of school. But shouldn’t the rest of us have the choice of what we want too?

Parents who choose Eton and Harrow for their children obey their rules. Whether they understand the need for ties and rules, I don’t know, but they don’t dare question the school. If ‘choice’ were real for all British parents, then the culture in our education system would never tolerate this woman demanding that her child’s school change its rules. Every few months we hear of some mother refusing to obey the rules of her child’s school. How these mothers cannot see that they hurt their children by doing this is simply astounding to me!

But we live in a free country. Parents should be allowed to bring their children up (within reason) as they like. Parents should also be free to choose whatever school they believe benefits their child most. Clearly, the boy with the Mohican cut doesn’t belong at Burlington Danes. When he leaves the school, I’m sure there will be only too many parents willing to have their child take his place.